Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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For The Boys! JUST IN rnmmmmmrnmimmmrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkmmmim+mB The best school suit, 2 pair pants to suit, Norforks or plain Blues, Browns or Greys. Get one of our Progress Suits, Buster Brown Hose, one of our good school shoes and he will be fixed. Also nice lot of Caps and Hats just received. COME AND SEE US BEFORE YOU BUY HIS OUTFIT. Enterprise Mercantile Company The Telephone and Good Roads The telephone goes hand in hand with good roads, ... ; - . j;? The telephone overcomes many of the obsta cles of bad roads and makes it possible for the farmer and other rural residents to transact busi ness in the city and with neighbors when the roads are impassabte. Progressive farmers are insisting upon good roads and telephones. These two agencies of modern civilization are doing more than all oihexs toWrd eliminating the isolation of country life. You can have a telephone in your home at Very small cost. Send a postal for our free booklet giving complete information. FARMERS' LINE DEPARTMENT SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY s. PRYOR STRJter ; . ATLANTA, GA. I ,ly. athletes the meat man's ? fiends? thpy *r?? such KFfNit hand* J<>r iwcvtAt t ' MEATS Meats to Roast, Meats to Fry! V The Best Meats * * t Always The Meats to Buy! Meats to Boil, Meats to Stew, The best Meats should always Be tho Meats for YOU! You'll Always fln<l them Here. Campbell Bros. Give Us Your Fall Advertising ? NOW WWE tWPICKARDi h-8Uam Shovel and Crew In Culebra Cut. 2 ? One of tho Great Emer gency Dame Devised to Protect the Locke. Colon, C. Z. ? Wbftt of the knen who have done the actual digging of the Panama canal 7 Who are .they, Whence have they come, how do they live? We all hare read a lot about Col onel Goethals, Colonel Slbert, Colonel Gaillard, Colonel Hodges, Colonel Gorgas and a few others of the men who hold the "big jobs." We know that their immediate subordinates are skillful, energetic young engineers and doctors from the states. _ Hut what do we know about the men who handle the pick and shovel, who pun the steam drills, who load the borings with dynamite, who help to fill up and empty the interminable dirt trains? With the very beginning of the French attempt to dig the canal the j labor problem bobbed up as serious, j especially in view of the horribly in sanitary conditions on the isthmus. White laborers succumbed rapidly to yellow fever and malaria and ft waa found that only negroes could with stand even fairly well the diseases and the climate. When Uncle Sam took hold of the big lob he had the benefit of the ex perience of the French In this as in other respects, and though he tried a few experiments in the labor field on hiB own account, it was soon de termined that the actual digging could be done best by negroes. Now there are two Islands in the West Indies, both British possessions, which are overflowing with workmen^ ? Jamaica and Barbados. To these islands agents were sent, and poon the colored men began to arrive on tjie isthmus, ship load after shipload. Many of them brought their wires and children and have become a part of the permanent population of Panama. One other source of labor was drawn upon largely, the north of Spain. There the agents of the com mission found a race of men hardy, eager for work and more intelligent than the negroee. ? A large number of j them were brought over, and though for a time they werfe troublesome by% reason of their disposition- 'to engage' in bloody Quarrels among themselves, a,fter several had been locked up by the Zone police' they learned to be have more like civilized beings. These Spaniards do not mix with the negroes^^fther in work or socially. They have their "own camps and messes. The stewards and cooks at these messes are Europeans and the Spaniards get better meals than the negroes. The . food Is adapted to their national taste and they receive wine several times a week. For this they pay 40 cents a day ? 10 cents more than the colored men pay. The Spaniards are considered the best common workmen?in the zone. The day laborer on the canal, as a general thing, uses the pick and shovel and does work that calls for no especial skill. But this is not true of all of them. There is a. higher grade in which the men do such wo*k as the riveting on the great lock gateB and the operating of the busy batteries of steam and compressed air drills that bore the holes for the dynamite blasting. Many negroes who have been on the job for years have graduated tip to these better positions. c Above them are the - bosses of gangs, the conductors of dirt trains, the foremen of dynamite crews, men who hold similar jobs, and they are almost invariably white men because such positions require more independ ence, reliability and intelligence. Up another grade and you come fco the superintending, drafting and de signing engineers. These are men from the states wKh technical educa tion, Initiative and often great inven tive genius. To the latter are due a number of most Ingenious machines designed to cope with new conditions and to expedite the work. < The negro laborer from Jamaica or Barbados is a joy forever. He is In ordinately proud of his British citizen ship. and with some reason, for the British government looks rare fully after his welfare Jn such a case as this, the terms of his contract being supervised, his health guarded and his return, if he desires to return, provided for. The Jamaicans are the more Intelligent ? of the two classes. u, and often have considerable eduoa k. The be#t of them have found positions as clerks, stewards and the like. The Barbadians are In the mala densely ignorant, but they are a happy lot and as they stream away from the canal to their quarters In the evening they sing, frolic and play practical Jokes as though they had not Just completed a day of baclc. breaking labor. They receive an aver, age of $30 a month, their mealB cost them 30 cents a day and (heir livinr Quarters almost nothing unless they prefer k> rent rooms from outsiders. Ihen they get the worst of It, for .rentals for ordinary rooms, without furniture and conveniences, are ex orbitant. The barracks for laborer* provided by the^commlssion are fitted with several tiers of bunks made of canvas slung on iron framed. At reg ular Intervals these are taken down and boiled, and riuch other sanitary measures as are necessary are car ried out with regularity and pr*. cision. " If the laborer is Injured or falls ill. there is a dispensary and a doctor c os? at hand, and if the case Is at all serious the patient is sent to the hospital at Ancon or, Colon. There he receives free as skilful treatment as money could buy, and there he Is kept until he recovers or dies. There is intense rivalry between the Jamaican and the "Bajian," for each believes firmly fhat his island is bigger and better than the other's, and incidentally, both believe that both Jamaica and Barbados are larger than Cuba. Their looks of dlBmay when shown a map of the West In dies are comical -to behold. Two things these negroes are ex fond ? religion and rum. And both are rather disastrous to many of them. The insane asylum whose buildings straggle up one slope of Ancon hill is full of them, and acording to the doctors most of them have been brought there by either rum or religion. Every evening in the streets of Panama may be en countered large groups of negroes, listening to the exhortations of some leader, often a woman, and singing ^ith fervor the hymns she intones for them. On other corners are de tachments o$ the Salvation Army, working with equal enthusiasm. And in the living quarters and the hos pital? groups will surround some amateur pastor who preaches to them and prays for them. In these ways, when they are not drinking, the ne groes spend much of their leisure time, and as they are impressionable and excitable and ignorant, the re sults are not always good. Pay day in the zone furnishes some interesting scenes. The pay car traverses the railway and at each labor oamp or town a long line of negroes files through it. Each man ^U8??Pr^ent W Check and dentiflcatlon tag with one hand and in the other hold his hat or cap. Into e latter the cashier shoves the sil ver coins that make up the work man a monthly stipend. The process is extraordinarily rapid, as it must be for thdre are, many thousands of laborerp to be paid. Up near the summit of Anton hill is * large patch of ground where no vegetation ever- grows. According to the legend, an Indian maiden sat there centuries ago and wept bitterly for the fate of her countrymen whom she could see far below tolling under the lashes of the cruel Spaniards. Her salt tears flowed down the hillside and so impregnated the soil that henceforth no vegetation could exist there. If any maiden from Jamaica or Barbados ever sits up there, she need not weep over the lot of her fel low-Islanders. Indeed, her smiles at their happy condition might well re *lt ?f land Its PrlsMne fertility. Her husband. ~ father or brother is earning more than he ever did before, is living better, and when ho returns to his island home may have saved up enough to loaf for a - under the shade of tho sheltering palm. ? t.So *ho rftAl diggers of the canal/ though unhonored and unsung, are j well paid, wfell fed and well housed. . In their degree they are as fortunate I as any others, who have found e? ployment in the zone. SAWYERS KH> SCHOOL :? it *' 'y .. ? The sooner you learn to come to our drug store for everything you need in the drug line, the sooner you will come to the store that carries none but the purest, freshest drugs and choicest drug store articles. , We want your drug business only because we give you reliable medicines and merchandise for your money. Come to OUR Drug Store Sawyer Drug Company REAL , SELL DO YOU WANT TO E?Xn J BORROW I May Help You. LAURENS T. MILLS, < ? V. : CAMDEN* S. C. Foreign and Domestic. 1 Try a bunch of our CELERY. CAMDEN CANDY KITCHEN that is distinctive because ."Vi * ' - of it's sfriart modishness and genuinely exclusive ? H V^' ? ,-r " design is to be found at ? - - r ? - y ?? " this establishment in its * V-'4 3- ? superb showing of Model ? ? ? 7K ? " ""? ^ A visit \vill prove, we're sure, a real pleasure ? drop fn ilTMp^ctive of whether you come to buy or not. ? , ! MISS MATTIE GERALD |